Influence of the erbium and oxygen content on the electroluminescence of epitaxially grown erbium-doped silicon diodes

The electroluminescence behavior of erbium-oxygen-doped silicon light emitting diodes grown by molecular beam epitaxy was studied for a fixed oxygen to erbium concentration ratio of about six. The diodes were operated in reverse bias. An increase of the erbium and oxygen content leads to a stronger erbium intensity at 5 K up to an erbium concentration of 1.5×1020 cm−3, an enhanced decrease of the erbium intensity with higher temperatures, and a shift of the temperature quenching onset to lower temperatures. The strongest erbium electroluminescence emission in reverse bias in this set of samples was obtained from annealed Si:Er-diodes doped with concentrations of 5×1019, or 1.5×1020 cm−3 erbium and 3×1020 or 3×1021 cm−3 oxygen, respectively. Electroluminescence emission due to erbium was detected up to 440 K.